I bet since the players see the owners made the first move they feel like they’re in control. This was a PR move obviously. This is the owners deal, if the players don’t like it the owners will say, “look we tried but the players just don’t want to take our deal. We want hockey, seems like the players don’t. Blah blah” then no season.

Guaranteed this is what happens. Really hope it does not though. Basically don’t hold your breath everyone.

elvispocomo - Oct 18, 2012 at 3:08 PM

I won’t hold my breath based on your ‘guarantee’ there will be no season because of this, let’s just say that.

Whatever you think the purpose of the offer was two days ago (genuine or PR related), it was a step forward. The NHL shouldn’t expect their offer to fly with the PA but the players shouldn’t come back with a bogus offer either. The big thing the offer did two days ago was get the ball rolling. That’s it. Now it’s the player’s responsibility to accept they will need to compromise more and put a workable offer back on the table in order to keep the ball rolling. Both groups need to step off their ivory towers.

My gut feeling is that the PA’s next proposal will not be seen in a very encouraging light in the media.. but that when considered as a whole it will be a substantial step closer to common ground.

That’s all we can really hope for at this point, is continued forward progress without either side getting all uppity and imposing deadlines or ultimatums on the process.

Frankly just getting the players to acknowledge with their counter proposal that they are going to end up (once again) with a system in which there is a hard cap and direct linkage to HRR would be a major step forward for the league.

My gut feelins is Fehr will see this as “weakness” instead of a genuine offer to get a FAIR deal done, ask for much more and act as if this offer is an insult. You could see as much in the letter he sent out to players yesterday. This wil result in the owners saying “we offered a fair deal, and they came back with BS”, and even though all media will still show them as the bad guys, they will know they put a fair offer on the table (and so will fans), so they will be willing to say take a hike.

This will either by some miracle be done by the weekend, or it will drag out for months

I have a very similar feeling but I’m banking on the fact that I’ve been wrong before and will be wrong again hopefully this is one of those times

davebabychreturns - Oct 18, 2012 at 2:05 PM

I don’t think it’s so binary as “there will be a deal done in the next two days” and “there won’t be a deal done for 100 or so days.”

A lot of the concerns Fehr expressed with the offer will be very real and I expect people will be shocked initially that the players next offer does not appear to be very close to the owners.

They will have a week to argue about which set of concessions from each side would put them at a mutually agreeable spot between the two offers, if they can do this there will be a deal and we’ll get our 82 game season. If they can’t then I am guessing each side will retreat for a week or two at most and then resume, or perhaps one side will attempt to use an ultimatum to scare the other and then actually have to follow throw and stop negotiating for a few weeks or even a couple months.

elvispocomo - Oct 18, 2012 at 3:19 PM

There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don’t.

As long as the response is a counter-offer of the NHL’s proposal, there is a chance. If it is a ground up re-design, like the players previous ‘vision’, I don’t hold out any hope hockey will be played soon.

This is the part that the NHLPA takes a fair deal that needs some tweeks, and pretends it is a slap in the face, and ask for much more. The owners will balk, and their offer will be pulled (they won’t be dumb enough to leave it out there so the union can pretend it is the “starting point” later), and as I’ve been saying since yesterday, this drags out MUCH longer.